Julian Jacobson & Mariko Brown – Markson Pianos 2017 Concert Series

As part of Markson Pianos ongoing concert series on May 31st 2017, the piano duo of Julian Jacobson and Mariko Brown will be performing in London. Their stage will be the visually and audibly dynamic central London St Mary Magdalene Church. These series of performances seek to showcase not only the incredible talent of pianists from around the world but also the power of the new Bosendorfer 280 Vienna Concert Grand. The most recent performance by Polish pianist Aleksandra Mikulska at Conway Hall provided an amazing demonstration of how this new instrument can provide artists with ‘the opportunity to play this big sound with less power than you might need with other concert grands’.

Jacobson and Brown formed as a piano duo in 2011 and quickly went on to establish themselves in the musical world. The pair is original and ever expanding in their musical depth which is why since their debut in the summer of 2011 at the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe’s Summer Festival they have gone on to perform at a multitude of venues.

Julian Jacobson first began to study playing piano and composition at the age of seven under Lamae Crowson and Arthur Benjamin. He then went on the study at the Royal College of Music and Queen’s College Oxford and has since enjoyed a very successful international career in music. Performing as a soloist, a chamber musician and a teacher, Jacobson has appeared in over 40 countries to date and makes a variety of annual visits to perform.

Mariko Brown made her first appearance when she was nine years old under Dr. Ruth Gipps and has since gone on to study at the Guildhall School Junior Department where she went on to win the Lutine Prize. Since then Brown has had a very successful career performing at the likes of Barbican Hall and St Giles Cripplegate during the City of London Festival.

The performance at St Mary Magdalene will begin at 7pm with the first known keyboard duet in recorded history, Thomas Tomkins ‘Fancy for Two to Play’. The duo will then go on to play Schubert: Variations on an Original Theme in A flat, D 813. Faure: Dolly Suite, Alfredo Casella: Pupazzetti, Germaine Tailleferre: Image and finish off with Gershwin: ‘An American in Paris’ a piece specifically transcribed for piano duet by Jacobson.

“It came as balm to the soul to encounter some real, sensitive music-making…the tumultuous ending [Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody] would have brought the house down in a properly packed venue – which is surely what the piece deserves.” This recent review by The Telegraph of the duo and perfectly encapsulates the nature of their performance; bringing music to life in a new and original way. Undoubtedly, this is not a performance to be missed with tickets still available for their May 31st performance at 7pm in St Mary Magdalene Church.